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Article: Gyroscope flaws: Hubble spins its wheels. (electrical glitches plague the Hubble Space Telescope)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- August 10, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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New equipment problems on the Hubble Space Telescope - this time electrical rather than optical - suggest the troubled craft may soon require more than corrective lenses to function properly. The failure of two Hubble gyroscopes in the past eight months and a recent electrical glitch in a third have prompted NASA to consider an emergency mission to replace these devices, which help orient the craft in space.
If two more of Hubble's six gyroscopes fail, the craft will lose its keen sense of direction - a feature vital to pointing the telescope accurately, explains John Campbell at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Hubble's latest woes ...